Q & A With Alexander Parkhomov

I recently sent some questions to Russian LENR researcher Alexander Parkhomov regarding his reports that were recently presented at the conference in Sochi Russia.

Recently Bob Greenyer has posted an interesting video of the “Woodpecker” device that Dr. Parkhomov reported about at the conference as being a source of “strange radiation” and the in the first question he describes how it is constructed.

1) Will you release a written paper with full construction details for your Ni-H reactor and the “woodpecker” to help replicators?

AP: Any experimenter can create a “woodpecker” device. You need a horizontal flat electrode immersed in water or another liquid, and a vertical electrode in the form of a thin rod. The vertical electrode is connected to an electromagnet, which is powered by a current, the circuit of which is closed through the electrodes. When the electrodes are connected, the electromagnet pulls up the vertical electrode, the circuit opens, after which the vertical electrode falls on the horizontal one. The chain closes again, the cycle repeats. In my devices, the voltage is up to 100V, the current is several A.

2) When the rate of strange radiation track production from the Ni-H reactor drops, does the quantity of excess heat produced drop as well? How do they seem to be correlated?

AP: The speed of the appearance of tracks for some unknown reason varies greatly, even at a constant reactor power. It is not possible to investigate the correlation between excess power and the rate of appearance of tracks.

3) When your fuel was “exhausted” and excess heat production ceased, did the emission of strange radiation also stop?

AP: We did not take measurements when the reactor was exhausted.

4) Does the application of a magnetic field (from a permanent magnet for example) have an effect on the rate of strange radiation production from the Ni-H reactor? What about the woodpecker?

AP: We applied the magnetic field, but we cannot draw a reliable conclusion about its influence because of the very high variability of the rate of appearance of the tracks.

5) Kenneth R. Shoulder’s was able to manipulate the path of EVOs utilizing electrostatic fields. What effect do electrostatic fields have on the strange radiation you are producing?

AP: The influence of the electric field is a very interesting problem. But so far we have not received results in this direction.

7) One idea that has been suggested is that surrounding the reactor core of your device with an external and secondary fuel could increase the COP. Basically, instead of escaping into the environment, the strange radiation would be triggering additional nuclear reactions. What are your thoughts on this possibility and what secondary fuels
would you consider as likely candidates?

AP: This idea emerges from experimental results. The candidate for secondary fuel may be, for example, aluminum, which is part of corundum tubes.

8) What do you think a strange radiation particle is composed of?

AP: I do not think that there are enough experimental results to formulate a reasonable hypothesis.

9) How do the rates of strange radiation production from the Ni-H reactor and the woodpecker compare: does one produce a greater quantity of strange radiation than the other?

AP: It is difficult to make a comparison due to the very large variability of results.

10) Bob Greenyer mentioned that you showed him an image of a round spherical reactor utilizing nickel electrodes that produced a glow discharge plasma between themselves to produce a COP of 3 or higher. Can you tell us some more about this device?

AP: In the flask were placed two tungsten tubes filled with nickel powder. Nickel was saturated with hydrogen at a pressure close to atmospheric. Then the hydrogen pressure decreased to 0.1 Torr and a voltage of 1000 V, 50 Hz was applied. A discharge ignited in the gas, the electrodes became hot, and excess heat appeared. Unfortunately, the electrodes quickly collapsed due to very high temperatures.

11) When the Ni-H or woodpecker devices are operational and emitting strange radiation, what safety precautions do you take?

AP: We try to be far away.

12) What happens if you add a percentage of lithium to the fuel of the NiH reactor? What is the result in terms of excess heat and strange radiation?

AP: Metallic lithium poisons the reactor.

13) Your response to the last question is that metallic lithium poisons the reactor. Does this mean that it breaks the reactor, or that the LENR reactions stop when metallic lithium is used. I recall in the past that you have used LiAlH4, and this produced excess heat. Maybe metallic lithium behaves differently?

AP: LiAlH4 at a temperature of 180-200 ° C is decomposed into hydrogen and LiH. With further heating at temperatures above 300 ° C, hydrogen dissolves in nickel. Large surface of nickel powder supports to this process . If lithium metal is contained in the fuel mixture, it is melted at 180 ° C and absorbed by nickel powder. In this case, the porous structure of nickel is disturbed, as a result of which the saturation of nickel with hydrogen becomes difficult.